Animus
by WindmillQuill
Summary: (Magical girl!AU) Kagami wakes up one day to find Kuroko is gone- and no one seems to know or remember him. Based on the events after the defeat of Walpurgisnacht. Contains spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and may be dark. Canon yet not canon at all. NOT CRACK.


**A/N: Hi! Oh, okay, so techically Nationals aren't over, but I found time to write. And I'm dying, because why hasn't anyone attempted to write a Magical Girl AU for KNB without it being crack? Anyone watching the series would know it has nothing to do with crack. This is really, to quote other authors, just a self-indulgent AU. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this one, so if you come up with good ideas please let me know to guide this along the way. And I want to know if you want this to end happily or badly.**

Notes: Canon yet not canon at all

Magical girl!AU

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Misunderstood Puremine

Angst, angst, angst really dark

You have been warned.

**Chapter One: Gone**

Chapter summary: Kagami wakes up one day to find Kuroko is gone- and no one seems to remember/know him.

* * *

The two quietly walked back, the cold air condensing their breaths and giving Kuroko's white face a frosty look. They continued on in silence until they reached the court, and Kagami started to dribble the ball slowly. This was the court where it had all started. Then Kagami couldn't hold in it any longer, and broke into a full-out grin. "We did it…we've become the No.1 in Japan." Jubilant red eyes met gleeful blue ones under the light of the streetlamp, and if Kuroko wasn't feeling so cold he'd jump and embrace Kagami. Instead he settled for smiling at his partner. "That's right Kagami-kun. I'm so glad."

Then the two of them were laughing, and the cold frigid air they inhaled stung in their throats, but they were too happy to care. Kagami looked up and saw Kuroko with a strangely soulful look. "Everyone's going to be all right now," he said quietly. "We no longer have a need to despair."

* * *

Kagami vaguely remembered wanting to ask Kuroko what that statement meant before he woke up.

Huh, even in his dreams he was thinking about having won the Winter Cup. A smile curled his lips. Today marked the fourth day after the Winter Cup, and he'd had just enough time to rest his aching body from the intense match with Rakuzan last week. Coach had given them time off since their lives had practically revolved around basketball for the last two months. He reached for his phone, wanting to call Kuroko and ask him if he was free to hang out. Knowing the other, he would probably offer (rather forcefully) to tutor Kagami's schoolwork since his grades had been so gracefully revealed during the last clubroom clean-up. Oh well, he'd still want the company.

Kagami had scrolled through his list of contacts under the syllable "Ku" a few times before he'd realized he couldn't find the contact. His misshapen red eyebrows shot up, perturbed as he scrolled from A-Z again, only to come up with nothing.

Nothing.

Had he deleted Kuroko's contact by mistake? Guess he would ask the boy personally later, their team was throwing a party later this afternoon to celebrate their victory over the Winter Cup. He scrubbed the scuff of hair at the back of his neck, wondering what he would do to fill the hours.

* * *

After a completely boring afternoon, Kagami walked to the meeting place at the gate where he could see his seniors were already assembled. Izuki was the first to catch sight of him, as usual, waving him over with an "Oi, Kagami!"

" 'Sup. How's everyone been doing?" Koganei and the others gave him grins, while Mitobe just looked faintly pleased. Riko ran up then, apologizing for her tardiness.

Kagami looked around. "So where's Kuroko? Let me guess, he's just right at the back…eh?" His fair-haired silent teammate was nowhere around, and when he turned around his teammates were giving him strange looks. "Who's Kuroko, Kagami? Don't tell me you invited your girlfriend to the party." Furihata and the rest chuckled while Riko punched his arm. "Don't tell me you've gotten a girlfriend in just four days, Bakagami! If you've the time, spend it on your studies!"

"Ouch! No, seriously senpai, don't joke with me. Where's Kuroko?" Kagami replied.

"Kuroko? We don't know no Kuroko." Koganei piped up, while Hyuuga gave him a serious look. "Kagami, did you hit your head too hard during the match?"

Kagami laughed tonelessly. "That's not funny, Hyuuga-senpai…no shit, you're serious." Heavy realization sank to the pit of his stomach. "Don't you guys remember? Kuroko Tetsuya, no.11, always disappearing whenever he's not supposed to? Creepy little dude who's my shadow?" The concerned gazes of his teammates made him feel as if he'd been punched.

Then after a pause, Riko spoke up. "I'm taking him to the doctor's, Hyuuga-kun. Teppei, take them all to the restaurant first." Kagami protested, but was dragged to the clinic anyways. After it was confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Kagami's head, although Kagami insisted there was something wrong with theirs, Riko sat him down outside in the hallway and listened to his convoluted explanations of how they could never have won without this "Kuroko" personality. "He was our teammate, coach. Don't you remember?" He said almost pleadingly, and Riko looked at him piteously. "I'm sorry, Kagami, but this person you mention was never on our team, I'm sure of that. Even if I don't trust my own memories, Hyuuga-kun and the rest don't have any recollection of him either."

Kagami swallowed. This wasn't happening. Had everything with Kuroko been a dream? It wasn't possible, he didn't have the imagination for anything except basketball plays and even then he was shit at literature, there was no way he could think someone as enigmatic as Kuroko up. "But he was one of the Generation Of Miracles. Y'know, the sixth man." He tried one last time.

Riko continued to look at him weird. "There was never a sixth man, Kagami. The Generation Of Miracles only has five people."

* * *

Kagami still couldn't believe this was happening. How could everyone forget about Kuroko? Was he the only one who still remembered? Was it all a dream? It couldn't be. He could still remember the ache in his palm, but it was a ache that felt right, felt like it belonged every time Kuroko sent the the ball singing into a pass in his grasp before Kagami followed up with an alley-oop. Kagami was sure he didn't do alley-oops so often before Kuroko came along. These confused thoughts swirled around his head as he walked down the streets darkened past evening. Every step he took came with the sure pound of the ring back against his chest on its chain._ 'It was like Kagami-kun was telling me not to throw it away.' _Everything was tied to his existence. Everything didn't make sense. He looked up absentmindedly when he reached a road junction, and his eyes widened when they took in a boy dressed casually in a striped shirt and navy jacket, with distracted blue eyes and frosty hair tinted almost-not-there blue. The boy stood at the junction, and his eyes did not meet Kagami's. He was going to call out to the other when...

_Kuroko_, was on the tip of his tongue, but before he could call out a car cut off his line of sight and when it passed the boy was gone.

Kagami wasn't sure if he was going mad.


End file.
